Arthur Elrod

Arthur Dea Elrod, Jr. (August 8, 1924 – February 18, 1974) was an American interior designer, perhaps best known for the Elrod House in Palm Springs, California designed by the architect John Lautner and built for Elrod in 1968.

Arthur Elrod
Born
Arthur Dea Elrod, Jr.

(1924-08-08)August 8, 1924
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
DiedFebruary 18, 1974(1974-02-18) (aged 49)
Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Alma mater
OccupationInterior designer

Early life

Elrod was born in Anderson, South Carolina, grew up on a farm, and studied design at South Carolina's Clemson University, before attending the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles.[1]

Career

In 1954, Elrod and Harold "Hal" Broderick started Arthur Elrod and Associates, an interior design firm on Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, and went on to hire William C. Raiser, Steve Chase, and others.[1]

Personal life

In 1968, architect John Lautner built a home for Elrod in Palm Springs, California that became known as the Elrod House.

The parties he held at the Elrod House were "legendary", Bill Blass held a fashion show, Playboy did a November 1971 feature, Pleasure on the Rocks, and the house was used as Willard Whyte's mansion in the 1971 James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever. The house has been described as the "ultimate bachelor pad", and it has been noted that increasing numbers of the "pads" in Playboy in the 1970s belonged to out gay men like Elrod.[2]

Elrod was a close friend of Bob Hope and his wife Dolores.[3]

Elrod and his associate, William Raiser, died in a traffic accident on February 18, 1974, when their Fiat sportscar was hit by a drunk teenage driver. Elrod was 49 years old.[4][5]

References
  1. Cygelman, Adèle (2015). Palm Springs Modern (PDF). Rizzoli. p. 168. ISBN 978-0847844104. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  2. Sewell, Jessica (July 2–5, 2013). "Opening the Boundaries of Architectural History: Popular Culture, Imaginary Buildings, and the Influence of the Bachelor Pad" (PDF). Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand: 30, Open. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand. 1: 67–79. ISBN 978-0-9876055-0-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-05-07. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
  3. Browning, Norma Lee (February 22, 1974). "Friends Shocked by Elrod's Death". Chicago Tribune. p. 12. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  4. "Arthur Elrod Killed in Crash; Interior Designer Was 49". The New York Times. February 20, 1974. p. 40. Archived from the original on December 7, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  5. "Famous Designer Elrod Killed in Car Collision". The Desert Sun. February 18, 1974. p. 1. Archived from the original on June 3, 2016. Retrieved May 2, 2016.

"Arthur Elrod: Desert Modern Design" by Adele Cygelman (Gibbs Smith, 2019)

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